Jeff Burke was loading the patient into an ambulance on Oct. 2 in the town of Barnum. He said there was little time to react when a fire truck parked behind the ambulance popped out of gear and started rolling toward him.

“It was a matter of, you know, you can’t think that fast. There’s the truck and it pinned me,” Burke said from a hospital bed in Des Moines where he continues to recover.

The veteran firefighter and EMT didn't have time to think about how he might end up in a hospital with multiple broken bones, but he did think about his patient.

“So I was between her, there was the ambulance, me, the gurney and I just kind of two-handed shoved her,” Burke said.

That shove was just enough to get Burke’s patient out of harm’s way and keep them both from being pinned between the truck and ambulance. Burke, however, was going into shock and needed help.

“I’m praying to God, ‘end my life now,’ it hurt so bad,” Burke said.

Help not only came from the other first responders, but from the woman on the gurney beside him in the ambulance. The woman who’s life he just saved.

“I get emotional on this part, but I owe her my life,” Burke said. “Her hand came out and it grabbed my hand and she just kept rubbing it and rubbing it. At that point I thought, I have too many kids in my life, too many grandkids, and she brought me back.”

Burke has months of rehab ahead of him, but he says he’s lucky. He broke both femurs, two bones in his left shin and his pelvis in two spots.

He hopes to have the chance to talk with the woman he says saved his life. She continues to recover from the stroke that brought Burke to her home.

To help with Burke’s medical bills, Webster County emergency responders are planning a fundraiser for Saturday, Oct. 27. There will be a dinner from 4-7 p.m. at St. Matthew’s Church in Clare. A live auction will start at 5 p.m. at the Clare Community Center.